Thousands of refugees flee fighting in east Ukraine

Jul. 2, 2014
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Children who escaped the fighting in eastern Ukraine for Berdyansk on the Azov Sea attend a summer camp. Parliamentarian Alexander Panomarov spent $16,000 to send 82 refugee children to camp to ease the trauma they suffered in the war zone. / Hal Foster for USA TODAY

by Hal Foster, Special for USA TODAY

by Hal Foster, Special for USA TODAY

BERDYANSK, Ukraine - It started last month as a simple father-daughter driving lesson but soon turned deadly.

As their car approached a checkpoint manned by armed pro-Russian separatists battling national forces in eastern Ukraine, the father turned around for some unknown reason, rather than submit to a check.

Two separatist cars gave chase, firing AK-47s. "They killed both of them," recounted Svetlana Kostenko about the fate of her neighbors in Shakhtarsk. As far as Kostenko knew, the father was not involved in anti-separatist activity in the Donetsk region that includes their home.

The memory has traumatized Kostenko, 20, a student at Berdyansk State Teachers University who is a children's camp counselor this summer. Such harrowing tales haunt many of the children at the camp who have become refugees of the war.

Hundreds of children are among several thousand refugees who have swamped this beach resort over the summer. Many were orphans before the war. Others are newly orphaned, their parents killed in the conflict.

About 160,000 refugees have fled the fighting in the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk regions, the United Nations says. Two-thirds have gone to Russia; about 50,000 are staying in Ukraine.

The stream of refugees has become a torrent the past two weeks, even during a 10-day cease-fire that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ended Monday night.

When refugees began arriving in Berdyansk in May, Mayor Alexei Bakay appealed for residents to help. Many responded with lodging, food and other needs, Deputy Mayor Lyudmilla Shapoval said. The donors included hotel owners who passed up lucrative summer-season income to let refugees stay in their rooms for free.

Some Berdyansk families have taken in displaced children as their own, Shapoval said.

Many children are so traumatized, they put a strain on Berdyansk's mental health services, she said.

She recalls a 9-year-old boy from Slavyansk who showed up in "hysterics. He said six of his relatives had died in the fighting."

The member of Parliament who represents Berdyansk, Alexander Panomarov, spent $16,000 of his own money to pay for summer camp for more than 80 displaced children. His aim is to give them a relaxing environment to help alleviate their trauma, according to Tatyana Goryachova, a journalist with the Berdyansk Delovoy news portal.

The poorest refugees arrive by train and bus, while those with means come by car.

When bombs began falling close to an elderly woman's home near Lugansk's airport, "the granny grabbed her granddaughter, and they jumped on a train and came here with only the clothes on their back," Shapoval said.

A mother in Slavyansk put her 8-year-old son on a bus to Berdyansk by himself, the deputy mayor said. "Are you watching the news on TV - what's happening in my home?" the anxious boy asked upon arrival.

Some Berdyansk residents have gone so far as to enter combat zones to pluck civilians from the fighting.

Alexander Kisel, who is legally blind, is the unpaid director of Berdyansk's Center for the Disabled. He is a former world-class Soviet karate champion. When he learned about a woman who wanted to leave the war zone, he asked friends to take him to Makeevka in the Donetsk region to pick her up.

Before they left Berdyansk, they loaded water, beer and dried saltwater catfish â?? a symbol of their city â?? into their car. By presenting the bounty to those manning the separatist checkpoints, Kisel and his buddies had no trouble getting the woman to safety.

Then she asked them to ferret friends out of the war zone. This time, the water, beer and catfish almost weren't enough to accomplish their mission.

Separatists have been stealing expensive cars from those driving through checkpoints, and the gun-wielders at one roadblock ordered Kisel and his friends out of their Audi S6.

"I spent 30 minutes negotiating with them," he said. What convinced them was his argument that he needed the car to help disabled people and the proof he flashed - a certificate declaring him legally blind.

Before they ended their rescue missions, Kisel's team had snatched 15 people to safety - three men, five women and seven children.